Frenchman Weighs In On Putie

Kouchner breaks ranks to criticize 'prime minister' Putin
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner expressed concern Tuesday at Russian President Vladimir Putin's plans to take the post of prime minister, although the EU said it was an "internal" matter.

Kouchner, one of the few senior international politicians to publicly express misgivings, told Europe 1 radio that there were not enough counterweights to the power of the Kremlin in Russia.

He said US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had been right to express reservations in a newspaper interview about the political situation in Russia.

"Condi Rice was absolutely right to highlight that this is an 'unprecedented procedure'," he said.

Asked about the absence of counterveiling powers to the Kremlin, Kouchner -- who paid an official visit to Russia last month -- said: "Unfortunately, there is not enough.

"The opposition is not taken sufficiently seriously, the country has lots of difficulties and the whole world knows it."

[...]

According to Michael Emerson of the Centre for European Political Studies in Brussels, Monday's move by the president should not have come as such a political earthquake.

"Everybody should have been expecting some twist to enable Putin to stay in power virtually indefinitely," he said.

"He is not quite president for life -- but he's not doing that badly. It's obviously a perversion of the intentions of the Russian constitution but he will get a mandate to become PM, and then president for another two terms."

"That gives us another 10 or 12 years [of Putin]," he said.

Emerson added: "They [the West] are not saying anything because they are not enthusiastic at this latest demonstration of Russia's non-democracy, but there's nothing much they can do about it."

Open & transparent elections advocates Maxine Waters, Jimmy Carter and al-Gore were unavailable for comment.


From June 9, 2007: Will Putie be setting up a caretaker government?